Birding is a great past time and a life-long learning experience. Everyone makes mistakes. Some identifications are fairly easy, especially for the common birds we see nearly evey day, but others are tougher and more subtle. Things like structure, time of year, and distribution probablity often offer more clue to identity than simply color and markings. These tools are offered as some help to grow your skills for reporting your observations.

1. Learn the family characteristics - the single easiest way to identify a bird is to narrow it down to the proper family. 
2. Learn about food preferences and sources -  this helps define the habitats where a species may be expected or at least more likely.
3. Sounds can be deceiving - although tech tools such as Merlin can be useful, don't rely on them. Not only are they never 100% correct, a single Northern Mockingbird is capable of producing the songs of many different species. There are many other mimics.
4. Expected in Iowa - review the state checklist to see if is regularly recorded.
5. Seasonal differences are essential to know - a common bird in summer may be extremely rare in winter and vice versa.
6. Migration timing - many species are found only during spring and fall migration. Learn the appropriate time frames to expect them using the Early-Late Dates chart.
7. Buy a good field guide and learn to use it. You will learn much more perusing the guide than by trying to match things to an app in the heat of the moment.
8. Optics - binoculars and spotting scopes vary in quality. Buy the best you can afford.  The feel is very personal so be sure to try several in a store or on a field trip before investing a lot of money.

Tools

Field Guides

•   National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America   With a total of 1,023 species, this is the most frequently updated of all North American bird field guides. It has hand-painted illustrations from top nature artists.
•   The Sibley Guide to Birds   Often considered the cream of the crop, the Sibley guide is beautifully illustrated with paintings and contains an abundant amount of species information.
•   Peterson Field Guide To Birds Of Eastern & Central North America   The Peterson system revolutionized birding with artwork pointing out key characteristics that help in identification. It has been updated over the years to keep up with current knowledge but still sets the standard for field ID. A companion guide for the western states is available.

Apps

•   eBird eBird has rapidly become the world's largest community science project, with birders contributing observations for analysis by scientists, land managers, and others. Explore the information and read the "Get Started" documentation to add to our knowledge.
•   eBird Phone App Download from the Apple or Google Play store to keep track of your observations when out birding. It is easy to use and GPS will plot you to the proper place for recording.
•   Merlin Bird ID Another app from Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology, Merlin is trained using artificial intelligence to help identify bird songs and calls. While it succeeds in accuracy at a good rate, you should always follow up on an unfamiliar bird by getting a visual of it.

Sound Recordings

•   The Cornell Guide to Bird Sounds These are recordings uploaded to the Macaulay Library at Cornell University as supporting evidence to eBird checklist observations.
•   Xeno-canto Xeno-canto is a collection of wildlife sounds created as a collaborative endeavor by scientists and other interested people. Listen to different bird songs and contribute your own recordings. Check out the page for songs recorded in Iowa.

ID Help

•   All About Birds The Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University provides this online resource for learning about different species. The guide presents photos, songs, distribution maps, as well as some brief behavioral tidbits.
•   IOU ID Help Library This library has links to several published articles on difficult-to-identify species.